


Galatea

by maruya



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Inspired by Pygmalion and Galatea (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28565802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maruya/pseuds/maruya
Summary: Master sculptor Gautier absolutely refuses to create images of humans he doesn’t love. One day, he fashions a woman he had never seen out of marble. A series of altercations on the cold, unfeeling stone more bizarre than the last have his friends believe they have genuine cause to panic.Based on the Greek legend. Oneshot with an introduction.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Felix Hugo Fraldarius & Sylvain Jose Gautier, Ingrid Brandl Galatea/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Kudos: 8





	Galatea

**Author's Note:**

> This is an introduction for worldbuilding so reading it is optional. If you liked the pitch/summary, I suggest bookmarking this so you can catch the oneshot when I finish it.

_You’ve heard this story before._

_The names may be different, the time and place unfamiliar, the details just plain wrong. But how can you not stay and hear it? There is nothing else better to do around this fire, anyway, and we muddy-blooded children of the stars itself are bored._

_Listen._

Our hero’s name is Gautier.

Gautier was not the man’s given name, which began with Sylvain and ended with Jose. He chose Gautier because people in those days chose a different name for when they were to pursue a career in the arts. He chose the name “for no reason” according to many admirers and curious art critics but his close friends will tell you it was because he thought Gautier sounded like a brand for luxury chocolates.

Gautier was that kind of man.

The couple who named him Sylvain had another son, Miklan. When they were children, Miklan, bigger in size and stronger than his scrawny younger brother, dropped a slab of marble heavier than their weights combined over Sylvain’s outstretched hands on their dinner table. It is said that that accident was in fact a blessing in disguise from the Goddess Herself, who not only mended his hands in time, but also gifted them with the strength and skill to mold marble like it was water. In reality, Sylvain was just too bitter to accept not landing the last blow on the beast that destroyed him (the mineral, or his own flesh and blood: take your pick) that he buckled down into the apprenticeship of a patient master who agreed to take him in spite of his shattered bones until he had overtaken their level of craftsmanship and gained artistic independence. Whatever version you believe, it is true that chisels and hammers broke in their quest to warm cold, heartless stone but the sculptor Gautier’s talent and energy never once wavered.

Part of why the sculptor Gautier was able to advance to the level of a master quicker than most was that his good friend, General Blaiddyd himself, belonged to a family of patrons and art dealers before the whole business of war had to be dealt with. In fact, Sylvain’s first marble sculptures were done as gifts for his childhood companions, and young Dimitri, then innocent of money and its power, would excitedly show his parents his friend’s latest creation. The Blaiddyds were known for their eye for budding talent, and they encouraged Sylvain to send them any creations he produced from practicing with his master. In the days our story takes place, it was Gautier’s earliest sculptures that sold for the highest price among his works, which I hear from artists I know had been due to his status as a living legend of his field; of course, by then, the Blaiddyds no longer had any in their collection, having sold every piece their son pushed upon them to the less affluent of their many contacts and clients years prior. (It is worth mentioning that as early as six years since the beginning of his career, nearly all these less affluent owners of the sculptor Gautier’s works dusted their marble trinkets and paperweights, auctioned them off to those richer, and began living the more affluent life for themselves. Such was the power of the name Gautier had crafted for himself.)

I must digress here and discuss a little about Sylvain’s friends before we begin. He had a few in his life to be sure, but for this story, it is General Blaiddyd and the soldier Fraldarius who are important. You know of course of these two men, who won the War of Wars which our people still sing of today. The sculptor Gautier had in fact been one of the commanders under the General himself, although his art has a stronger foothold in the halls of history rather than his military prowess. That is not to say Commander Jose was not a good commander, rather, his responsibility had been chiefly to follow through his only superior’s orders rather than lead campaigns independently. Military-wise, we may compare him to the soldier Fraldarius who had also received direct orders from their common friend, except he operated alone and led no men. Wars are not won without followers, as the saying goes. But our story happens after the war and ties these men as friends rather than fellow patriots. So for the rest of the tale, we will call General Blaiddyd Dimitri, and the soldier Fraldarius Felix.

Long before the three were even familiar with the concept of war, they had been playmates and brothers if not for their blood. As I mentioned earlier, Dimitri alongside Felix had been the primary recipients of Sylvain’s creations, which to him had merely been friendly affection wrapped in sturdy, undying marble package. As he grew in age, the sculptor Gautier’s gifts grew fewer in numbers yet larger in scale.

It is a well-known anecdote that General Blaiddyd’s favorite piece among his friend’s favors was his own life-sized sculpture made for his eighteenth year. At the presentation, the highlight of the fancy ceremony his parents had arranged for him to attend, Dimitri had blushed and fruitlessly attempted to find an intentional blemish in the work he was certain his friend had impressed as a private joke. Indeed, there were none: the sculptor Gautier transformed Sylvain the man’s raw affections into a sublime and deathless image of his friend. Faerghus had gasped as one at first sight, then stared in awe at the daffodil seeds fleeing their stems among leaves at marble Dimitri’s boots; the autumn breeze in his fine, silken hair; the melancholic tenacity in his vicious eyes, staring down Time Itself for all of eternity. It is this selfsame statue that General Blaiddyd was said to have mournfully embraced five years after its creation, the same to which he had cried out to the words, “Fool—if only you knew what was ahead of you!” after coming home at the end of the war.

Another popular anecdote on Gautier is that of the marble figures. Felix once had action figures: sticks shaped as humans and monsters he had carved out for himself as a child learning how to deal with a pocket knife. With a bit of paintwork and a simple system of strings and joints to make them poseable, the young Felix created a chest full of heroes and villains to play with on rainy days when he tired of swinging wooden swords in the nursery. Naturally, he was protective of his creations even towards his two best friends but Sylvain, intrigued by these “action figures,” eventually managed to wheedle them off him after a long period of persuasion. Naturally too did he break them for some boyish reason or other, and he and the enraged Felix bickered and grappled until it seemed as if their friendship was irreparably lost. Time had Felix forget his hard feelings but Sylvain held fast to them for ten years. He then presented his friend a miniature tabletop Faerghus complete with its castles and monasteries, towns and villages, and an upgraded, complex marble roster of all his little figurines almost a lifetime past. Gifted with it shortly after the War, the soldier Fraldarius took a careful look at each asset from every angle and then simply said, “Nothing moves anymore, how is this any better?” But it is also said that he had moved the table to his bedside himself, away from the public, and kept it there until his death.

To this day, there is an ongoing debate between critics and laymen alike on which among these two masterpieces is the sculptor Gautier’s second best. In truth, these works would only rank either third or fourth because the second best of all of Sylvain’s creations is privy only to the three friends who reportedly broke down in tears every time they saw it. But that tale is for another time. Ours is about the sculptor Gautier’s greatest creation, which has either long disintegrated in a pool of lava or is lost forever in the sunless depths of the ocean. It is sculpture known all across Fodlan as simply The Woman.

Listen.


End file.
